Editorial page editor Paul Gigot on the Supreme Court's decision to rule on the legality of disparate impact, a theory which allegedly proves discrimination through statistics. Photos: Getty Images

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... news this morning the Supreme Court ... took what could be a very important precedent setting case ... that will rule whether or not it's ok to charge someone with discrimination enlightening ... with our intense ... editorial page editor Paul GBO is to stay with me now call ... distance of New Jersey is called township of Mount Holly ... it concerns whether it's legal to see who will wonder for discrimination ... without intense how was the ... statistic based on statistical now still so how how is this where was impossible to something without showing the look of the fact that the ... there is an ... X number of loans go to one league open wide number of loans go to whites and then use out there must be discrimination hits based again on patterns ... not on the fact that ... as the nineteen sixty four Civil rights Act stipulated ... he had evidence I've discriminated against New ... somehow in order to prove discrimination this ... this is something that that has developed on her ... an anti discrimination enforcement over the years so it's never been tested yet and address right before the station and through thick and through regulation ... on by the ISE never been tested on housing discrimination in this case could pass okay that the Supreme Court accepted a case ... called Magner v Gallagher in November to twenty eleven ... that asks the same question ... as Mount Holly is asking for the court didn't get a chance to rule on that case why ... because Thomas Perez ... your good friend ... to department head of the civil rights division you've been reporting on this case for a long time in effect a great deal to develop the story of the polling data say that the wrong idea why don't we don't but it's true ... we've worked together on this and Euclid the story that he is in charge of the civil rights division is now nominated tea Labor Secretary but as ... the head of the civil rights Division I think he he thought what we know he thought that Magner was from that fact kicks ... that that's been that long as you can see said he didn't want the Supreme Court to take the case because I think she ... fought in fear ... that the court could seize assets Lee said that his theory of disparate impact using statistics and housing ... out was illegal under the Federal housing ... housing advocates would say woke up eleven ... lower courts have upheld ... the so-called disparate impact theory ... if we didn't have this theory would be very difficult for us to get ... equal treatment for minorities and housing ... when you say I stipulate that I typed I think that something wrong ... I mean that ... the decay of the evidence of that bring to bear here ... don't take into consideration a variety of things what about the quality of the borrower ... I mean you really wanna make sure you wanna make sure that when you make a loan to something they can actually ... carry below the one caveat ... so the it's not simply the race for the other of the homes of the bar there's all kinds of other factors ... and that's why think that when Hubert Humphrey and others wrote the civil rights laws ... they basically wanted it to be based upon ... where was there evidence of discrimination he did what quotas which is more we lead with these kinds of things ... you must have X percent of people get along ... that's not the way the civil rights statutes were written I don't think that with the intent of Congress ... and I'll be interesting to see where the Supreme Court comes and comes out of this we'll know more ... come on they may find out ok there are enough ... a precedence here they justify it ... on the other hand they